From: Adrian Tymes (wingcat@pacbell.net)
Date: Tue May 13 2003 - 22:55:15 MDT
--- "Michael M. Butler" <mmb@spies.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 13 May 2003 09:55:15 -0700 (PDT), Adrian
> Tymes
> <wingcat@pacbell.net> wrote:
>
> > Unless, of course, you just want to define "one
> > antpower" (which doesn't necessarily exactly
> > correspond to a particular ant) to be 1/2,000,000
> > horsepower (which doesn't necessarily exactly
> > correspond to a particular horse). ^_-
>
> Thus taking part in continuing a grand old
> measurement-coining tradition!
...I was hoping someone would catch that error:
1/500,000, not 1/2,000,000. But anyway...
I've added the comments to
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antpower, so you can use
that as the official citation if you want. ^_^;
--- Party of Citizens <citizens@vcn.bc.ca> wrote:
> On Mon, 12 May 2003, Michael M. Butler wrote:
> > On Mon, 12 May 2003 17:55:03 -0700 (PDT), Adrian
> Tymes
> > <wingcat@pacbell.net> wrote:
> > > Inverting that, you'd need about
> > > 500,000 ants to generate one horsepower,
> assuming
> > > perfect conversion of lifting power to whatever
> output
> > > form (electricity, rotary motion) you desire.
> In
> > > reality, conversion losses would multiply that.
> > >
> > > When you consider the volume needed to store,
> harness,
> > > feed, motivate, et al that many ants, it might
> be more
> > > efficient - to say nothing of far cheaper - to
> get
> > > that 1 horsepower from a horse.
> >
> > Ah, but now thanks to you, we have the conversion
> factor: 1 hp = .5 Map.
> >
> > Thanks, that goes in my obscure measurements file.
>
> But just think of what will happen when the ants as
> well as the carbon
> nanotube harnesses can be built in nano-factories
> (by worker ants of
> course). All guarded by soldier ants. The Queen Ant
> will carry the major
> (AI) brain power and over-all surveillance
> responsibility.
That's why I threw in the comparison to an actual
horse. Of course, if you want to do this kind of
thing
properly, don't bother with horses or ants. Just use
straight muscle cells: no space lost to digestive
system, bones, brains, et cetera. You do have to
provide the "blood", and keep it full of nutrients,
but
you can keep that power cell pumping 24 by 7 with no
worries about runaway (natural or artificial)
intelligence. (You might even be able to sell the
resulting power as "organic": "Produced by the same
natural processes Mother Nature blessed her creations
with, and using only those fuels every living being
uses." Yeah, that might not be that persuasive to
members of this list, but I'm sure most of us can
imagine people who would easily be persuaded by such
arguments. Unfortunately, they wouldn't pony up
enough in advance to properly fund the R&D - at the
moment, anyway.)
There is a place for thinking beings, no matter what
their nature. Menial labor is rarely it. The path to
the future seems, in part, marked by increasing use of
unthinking processes to do tasks conceived of by those
who think.
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